The dancer sits still for a moment

Melina has been photographed a zillion times in performance, but she needed some professional headshots—one more “show biz” and one more basic, for other things (like when it’s big on the back of a book, I’ll tell you about it!).

So we played with some different lighting and different backgrounds and these are some favorites. Melina is an amazing belly dance artist and circus performer, and I think that shines through here. She and her husband are co-owners of Moody Street Circus in Waltham, a circus arts and belly dance school. If it has ever crossed your mind to try belly dance, go there! It’ll be fun!

Behind the scenes: she thought using a fan was kind of goofy, but her hair was so spectacular, I really wanted to play with the look of it.

In fact, this shot reminded me of something and I finally figured out what: